Three Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike admitted to hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 February 2016, 19:04 GMT]Three of the Tamil political prisoners, who have been on hunger-strike since Monday have been forcefully admitted for medical treatment by the SL prison authorities at New Magazine prison, legal sources in Colombo told TamilNet. Out of 15 Tamil prisoners who were on fast-unto death, one prisoner had withdrawn and the condition of five prisoners worsened on Saturday, the sources said. Through their hunger strike so far, the Tamil prisoners have exposed that there are several prisoners without proper legal process and each and every one of them are forced to fight to expedite their cases or to get them released.

In the meantime, the SL authorities have been negotiating with the two Tamil prisoners who were on hunger strike at Anuradhapura prison on Saturday.

The SL officials have asked Sulaxan Mathiyarasan and Tharshan Ganesan, who have been detained without valid charge-sheets, to drop their fast-unto-death campaign.

Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, who spoke to journalists before the hunger strike had stated that he and fellow prisoners were shocked to learn the stand taken by the UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who went on record stating that the International Community was not in favour of the model of granting general amnesty to prisoners of war.

The kith and kin of the Tamil prisoners said they were expecting more details from the prisoners on Monday.